Archive for the ‘fundraising’ Category

The 1st of January saw the announcement of the grand total raised by the Flower Power Fund. I posted on Instagram about it on New Year’s Eve, with a bit of back story as to how I became involved in this brilliant community fundraiser…

Honestly, when Sarah first got in touch with an idea to raised funds by asking independent dyers to create flower-inspired yarns, she thought she might raise £1,000. She also involved other crafters, ran a MARATHON and had regular raffles (all while working as a Doctor for Marie Curie).

Sarah had an existing network of lovely creatives, which just blossomed and really got behind her (self titled) slightly bonkers idea with such enthusiasm.

A post shared by FlowerPowerFund (@flowerpowerfund) on Jan 1, 2019 at 8:13am PST

£22,628.91 raised for Marie Curie!!!!

A new yarn was released every month (sometimes more than one) with the dyers donating a percentage of the proceeds. A lot of the yarn sold out almost instantly, and dyers were frantically trying to keep up with orders.

A post shared by FlowerPowerFund (@flowerpowerfund) on Jan 1, 2019 at 9:52am PST

I did the branding for the project, and then drew each month’s flower and sold the prints. I also designed my first pin. A percentage of all my sales was part of the grand total. My initial thought was that I might raise £50…

But I raised £1082.12! I really hadn’t sold that much via my online and Etsy shop this time last year. I’d had a couple of really depressing attempts at craft shows and felt quite dispirited. So it was amazing when people started to buy the flower prints, and the 200 pins sold out!

I am still feeling a bit reflective and looking back at last year, thinking about what worked and what didn’t, what rocked and what flopped, so that I can put some really solid plans in for the coming year. My little social business is still in the early stages in a lot of ways and I am excited about helping it to flourish in 2019. There are a few things in the pipeline, and if you have a project or idea you think I could help with, do get in touch 🙂

The Yarn Badger very kindly donated 5 Goose Eye hat kits in different colours (with a name like that, they had to get involved). 100% of the sale price of each kit is going to the badgers! They include yarn and instructions, and are selling quick, so do order soon if you want one. You can find them here.

My lovely and talented friend Jane Brumwell made beautiful Stirling silver and copper progress keepers. They are each rolled with the impression of a skeleton leaf, and are so delicate. Each one is unique! You can find them in the shop here.

This is my final drawing for #mabsdrawlloween club. It combines a few of the prompts and a spell for the badgers – with herbs of protection, healing and invisibility at the bottom. Here’s a Samhain wish for the safe passage of badgers, ravens, monsters and other misunderstood creatures that go bump in the night. Happy Halloween 🙂 xx

Our black and white stripy celebration of Halloween has seen a flurry of beautiful badger-inspired work. This not only helps support our wild badgers through fundraising, we’re also raising awareness about the cruel and unnecessary badger cull here in the UK. AND we’re reminding people what they are in danger of losing. We don’t want the badgers to only exist in our art; we want them safe and protected in our fields and woodlands, where they belong.

Here’s a bit of a showcase of badger-y crafts (spoiler alert: there’s more to come!).

I didn’t manage to keep up with every single prompt for Mab’s Drawlloween Club on Instagram, but I have a lot of fun trying! A lot of the spooky prompts actually really made me think about badgers and why it’s so important to me that we try and help them.

Badgerween is a black and white stripy celebration of Halloween from the Badger Sett – a group of compassionate creatives fundraising for the Badger Trust. We are supporting their badger vaccination project, a positive alternative to the cull which is being increasingly rolled out across the UK.

I’m also still busy drawing things,and have been following some of the prompts for #mabsdrawlloweenclub on Instagram. I wanted to draw something that touched on why the Badger Sett exists – so drew some ghost badgers, a haunted badger cage and a laboratory…

After a flurry of petitions and donations when the big culls started, I had to tune out of badger news because it was just too depressing.

Last week though, I got an email newsletter from the Badger Trust. Among all their amazing work (what do you do when your own government wants to destroy the animal you were set up to protect?!) they are running a badger vaccination project and it sounds really promising, for all sorts of reasons. One reason is that it costs £1,000 to cull a badger but £200 to vaccinate one. You can read all about this hopeful project on the Badger Trust website here.

Wow. September is here. At the same time as feeling like it’s been a really long summer this year, I also can’t quite believer we are now heading into autumn. If you follow me on Instagram you’ll know I’ve been a bit of a mess as my little boy starts a new preschool (he’s absolutely fine of course).

Every month, new indie dyers and makers create lovely things for cratfers on a flower theme, with a % of all sales going to Marie Curie. This month, it’s all about Love-in-a-Mist, with a beautiful new yarn from Eden Cottage Yarns , a bag from Betsy Makes (both of which have sold out already!) and a new print from me: